YouTube backlash: Adam Giambrone’s TTC opus proves once again that he just can’t do video
Adam Giambrone hasn’t been a candidate for mayor since The Incident, but even he wants to get in on the game that Rob Ford and others have been playing: YouTube videos that extol their virtues. When we covered Ford’s financial plan, we noted that what Ford desperately needed was some production values for his videos. Well, we don’t have to worry about that for Giambrone’s farewell video, which accompanies the TTC’s end-of-year report. According to the Toronto Star, the slickly produced valedictory cost Giambrone’s office a pretty penny.
Outgoing TTC chair Adam Giambrone’s $15,000 swan song — a report and YouTube video starring himself — is being called by mayoral candidates a self-promotional waste of taxpayer dollars.
The production, which Giambrone paid for using an office budget, comes three months after the infamous $12,000 retirement party Councillor Kyle Rae threw for himself.
It’s still unclear exactly which city department picked up the tab. Giambrone said he wasn’t sure if it came out of his TTC chair’s discretionary budget, which is $125,000, or his councillor office budget of $53,100.
Predictably, the mayoral candidates have fallen over themselves to slam Giambrone and the TTC for spending money on this video. Rocco Rossi calls it the “outrage du jour,” and George Smitherman’s spokesperson Stefan Baranski calls it “nonsense that has to stop.” If Ford’s campaign actually responded to calls from the Star, we’re pretty sure they’d have something to say about it, too.
No word on what the exact cost of the video was—the $15,000 cited in the Star seems to be for the video and the full report—but it’s certainly the best video of Adam Giambrone playing with his Blackberry we’ve ever seen. And it totally beats that “I’m Ready” vid we were asked to endure when he was running for mayor. It’s not on-line anymore, but it’s spoofed here, here, here, here, here and here.
• Giambrone criticized for $15,000 TTC promo video [Toronto Star]
• Giambrone’s parting video shot [Toronto Sun]
